How the brain controls the 'fertility switch'

The findings are expected to have an impact on regulating fertility in clinics. Photo / iStock

An important insight into how the brain controls fertility has been discovered by scientists at the University of Otago.

The world-leading research reveals which neurons flip a key "fertility master switch" in the brain and the findings could pave the way for further advances in infertility treatment.

Led by Professor Allan Herbison at the Otago University centre for neuroendocrinology, the research was published this week in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

It marks the first direct evidence that neurons (known as Kisspeptin) working together generate the small, episodic hormone pulses crucial to normal reproductive functioning.

"Many types of infertility result from disorders of pulsatile hormone release, ranging from problems at puberty through to the inability to conceive", says Herbison whose team found estimates of up to a third of all infertility cases in women involve disorders in the area of brain circuitry.

The findings are expected to have an impact on regulating fertility in clinics in the future as Kisspeptins remain the "most important discovery in understanding how the brain controls fertility".

Herbison explains that the mechanism that drives hormone pulses goes too fast in some infertility conditions and too slow in others.

"So knowing how the brain generates these pulses will ultimately be invaluable in treating infertility."

The research is the third PNAS paper on fertility to come from the centre for neuroendocrinology in the past 12 months and was supported by grants from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the Royal Society's Marsden Fund.